I Love It Here: How Great Leaders Create Organizations Their People Never Want to Leave

By Clint Pulver

Give your employees something good to talk about.Emmy Award–winning speaker Clint Pulver—aka the Undercover Millennial—shares insights gleaned from more than ten thousand undercover interviews with employees across the country, revealing the best methods for identifying talent, building a sense of ownership, and developing a successful workplace culture that employees will love. You’ll also learn the number one driver of employee turnover (spoiler: it has everything to do with you!), what you can do to stop an exodus, and how to build a team that really works. Soon, you’ll be recognizing possibilities where others see problems, and capturing the power of small moments to create a meaningful legacy. Your company can be a place where people don’t just survive, but thrive. I Love It Here shows you how.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Clint Pulver
• Release date: Apr 13, 2021
• ISBN: 9781989603383

Clint Pulver

Clint Pulver is a professional keynote speaker, author, musician, pilot, and workforce expert. Known as the leading authority on employee retention, Clint has transformed how corporations like Keller Williams, AT&T, and Hewlett Packard create lasting loyalty through his work and research as the Undercover Millennial. He has been featured by BusinessQ Magazine as a “Top 40 Under 40,” and, as a professional drummer, he has appeared in feature films and on America’s Got Talent. In 2020, Clint won an Emmy Award for his short film Be a Mr. Jensen, which tells the story of how a single moment in time—and one particular mentor—can change the course of a life.

Book preview

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A Single Moment in Time

We do not remember days, we remember moments.

Cesare Pavese

A single moment in time can change a person’s life. I believe this firmly, just as I believe that it’s the small and simple moments that compound over time to write our life story. Some of these moments may feel trivial, others leave monumental consequences—both good and bad—but together they are always driving us to our next destination.

It was one of these pivotal moments that led me to create a company and a movement while I was in my twenties—a decision that has allowed me to work with some of the most remarkable organizations and corporations in the world.

How the Undercover Millennial Program Came to Be

In the fall of 2015, I embarked on a five-day business trip with a group of CEOs and other executives to learn from some of the best business leaders in the country. My small troop consisted of nine individuals who had very impressive experience in various industries. Being the youngest in the group, I was passionate, hungry, eager to rub shoulders with amazing leaders, and hopeful that what I learned on this trip would help me grow into someone equally as accomplished and influential.

During this experience, I had the chance to spend time with people like Brandon Steiner of Steiner Sports Memorabilia, a very successful sports marketer and businessman who capitalized on his purchase of the old Yankee Stadium and made part of his fortune by selling bottled dirt and other random Yankee paraphernalia to die-hard fans. We met with a few other business experts as well, and I was fascinated by their stories, their strategies, and the things they had done to make a living and an impact.

On the last day of our trip, we were given the opportunity to interview the CEO of a different major sporting goods enterprise. (Lots of sports meetings happened on this trip.) We were brought to one of his outlets, the flagship of several hundred stores in a chain that had spread across the nation. By the looks of the large, thriving space, there was no end in sight to this CEO’s success.

It was absolutely beautiful. The walls were lined with the newest equipment and the racks were full of the latest trends in athletic wear from Nike, Adidas, Under Armour, and more. Everything was neatly hung and smelled of clean rubber. I’m not even the biggest sports fan, but as I walked through this palace of athleticism and saw all of the employees cheerfully helping customers, I couldn’t help but think that this was a place I would have liked to have worked at when I was younger.

Eventually, our small group found its way to the back of the store, where the CEO was waiting to meet us. He was a fairly tall gentleman, likely in his late fifties. By the way he carried himself and the way he began answering our questions before we had finished asking them, it was obvious he was the one in charge. I was impressed that he would take thirty minutes out of his day to speak with us: he didn’t have a clue who we were or what our backgrounds consisted of, nor did he ask.

The CEO’s business philosophy was this: You grow, or you die. This seemed fitting for a man who had survived decades of fluctuating economic hardships and shifting business trends. He briefly told us how he got involved with his company, what he loved about it, and how his retail and sales systems had morphed over the years to keep up with the rapidly changing market.

At the end of his talk, the CEO took us on a tour of his store—though simply calling it a store seems insufficient. The space was a wonderland of everything sports-related, and he was the Willy Wonka of it all. The old brick-and-mortar mentality of doing business, where people walk into your store and buy something, is no longer the way it’s done, he said, gesturing at the impressive assortment of sports gear. It’s archaic. You can’t run businesses off that model anymore. He paused, turning his gaze toward us. Seventy percent of our sales are online now. Not through the outlets, not even through the stores. That’s the way it is now. It’s always changing. You want to survive, you gotta keep up. He raised his hand and made a gesture of emphasis, jabbing the air to punctuate each word: If you’re not growing, you’re dead.

It was intense, and these startling words seemed to give everyone pause as the CEO went on to talk about the massive shift they had to make toward online sales, what it was like being forced to work through re-sellers like Amazon, and having to run targeted ads on platforms like Instagram and Facebook.

We do a fraction of the old-school marketing that we used to, he said. Everything is digital now, and our ability to stay alive and successful means that we’ve had to create a whole new model to attract and entice our customers. He turned to face us again, arms folded and face stern. I’ll say it again: You want to survive? Then you’ve got to keep up. Grow or die. Any questions?

I did have questions. As we had been wandering through the store, I was watching all of the CEO’s floor staff engaging with customers, selling merchandise, and ringing in purchases, just like retail salespeople have always done. I wanted to know about how all this constant change in the retail model had affected how the business trained and managed its employees. I raised my hand, and he nodded at me.

So, I said. You’ve made all these changes to maintain the loyalty of your customers, and it seems to be working out really well. In your experience, have you noticed any differences in your employees and the way they work? Have you also had to change the way you manage employees today, versus the way you had to, say, twenty years ago?

He didn’t hesitate for a moment. Nope, he said. The way I managed twenty years ago is the same way I manage today. And you know what? It works! We get results. He smiled and unfolded his arms, sweeping them out to present his beautiful store and colorful merchandise. Look at my success, he seemed to say. That’s all the proof you need.

This response surprised me. I might not have been in the business world for as long as he had, but the dots just didn’t connect. This CEO knew he needed to constantly shift his practices to meet the ever-changing needs of the market and his customers, but when it came to his management style, he saw zero need for change.

The conversation moved on as others in the group asked questions like What was your first job? and Who has had the greatest impact on your business career? and How old were you when you became a CEO? But I was hardly listening. I couldn’t get my mind off what he had said about managing his employees. I looked again around the store, paying closer attention to the frontline staff members who were working the floor. Many appeared to be of college age; a few seemed like they were still in high school. Huh, I thought to myself. All millennials, like me. Many even younger.

This was also a time when the overall perception of my generation was perhaps at its worst: many saw millennials as entitled, distracted, unwilling to spend any time in the trenches, free from the expectations and burdens carried by the generations before us.

Source: Pew Research 1

My generation is older now, and perhaps (I like to think) we are proving our mettle. Today, a scene like the one I observed at that sports store would likely be populated by floor staff from Gen Z (also known as centennials or sometimes zoomers), with a few millennial supervisors in the mix. But I would be thinking the same thing today as I thought back then when that CEO said, Nope. The way I managed twenty years ago is the same way I manage today. And you know what? It works! We get results.

Would his employees say the same thing? Did his management style actually work? Was he really getting the results he thought he was?

At the end of the interview’s scheduled time, the CEO bellowed, All right, I have to go. But I’ll tell you what—you can have anything in the store for a discount, say... 60 percent off. That sound good? Great, get outta here. We thanked him for his time and spread out into the store to buy some new athletic apparel at a generously discounted price. But instead of looking at jerseys and running shoes, I again found myself carefully watching the employees as they worked away at hanging clothes, staffing the registers, and helping customers find the right items. They all seemed friendly enough, so when my curiosity got the better of me, I approached the nearest one. He was a younger guy, somewhere between eighteen and twenty. He had a very bright smile, which was nicely complemented by his crisp, company-branded shirt. He had a nametag on—for privacy’s sake, let’s say it read Derek.

Hey... I’m kind of curious, I said. What’s it like to work here?

Derek looked at me. You honestly want to know? he asked.

Yeah, I do. Seems like a really cool place.

Derek looked around the store cautiously, and I suddenly felt as if I had just kicked off some kind of illegal drug exchange. He pressed in a little closer, and when he was sure no one could hear us, he said, I hate this place.

Wow. I wanted to know more. Really? I said. What do you mean?

Well—I literally feel like a number when I’m here, answered Derek. I clock in and out as fast as possible.

And there it was—the single moment in time that shifted my perspective.

I had opened up Pandora’s box. The CEO had seemed so sure, so confident in the way he managed his business, and with just one question it all looked suddenly different. For several minutes, I listened as Derek told me how he couldn’t stand the company or his managers, how he felt like the people in charge were inappropriately controlling and misused their authority, and how he keenly felt a lack of authentic care for him as a person—or even just as an employee. To him, the store was disorganized, with no structure or direction; it wasn’t clear who was responsible for doing what or how tasks could be done more efficiently. That kind of chaos didn’t inspire confidence in Derek, and opportunities for growth seemed limited.

I’ve got things I want to do, ya know? I’ve got a lot I want to be, and there’s not really a future here, he told me sadly.

So, why are you working here? I asked. I was legitimately curious, given his list of grievances.

Oh, I’ve already applied to three other places. As soon as I get an offer, I’m gone.

As Derek said this, a customer approached needing assistance and he turned away to help them. As he guided the customer away down the aisle, I thought, "Man, either this dude is having a really bad day, or the reality of what’s happening in this store is totally different from what the CEO believes about the culture of his organization." One opinion does not give an accurate picture, so I moved to a different area of the store and tried again. I casually walked up to another employee, and asked the same questions.

Then, I approached another employee.

And then another.

By the end of the forty-five minutes we had been given to shop, I had secretly interviewed six of this CEO’s employees. I asked them all similar questions in the same general pattern. And at the end of these various conversations, five of the six employees had told me they were already looking to leave the company, or that they would be gone in three months or less.

Five out of six! Granted, I had taken a small sample in this impulsive experiment, but if more than 80 percent of your workforce—or even of a randomly chosen part of it—plans to leave, something is probably very wrong.

As I walked out of the store that day, I realized there is a major gap between what an employer perceives and what their employees expect—not just in that store on that day, but in the workplace in general—and that this problem needs to be solved. I kept thinking about the employees’ responses, their needs, and the simple things they were looking for (and not finding) in their jobs. Those six employees had given me truth, insight, ideas, and perspectives that had been whooshing right over the head of their CEO, despite his considerable height.

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EXPERIENCE

THE STORY

And there it was—the single moment in time that shifted my perspective.

I kept thinking back to my early work experiences in high school, in college, and even after college. I had worked with some pretty good companies along the way (and some not-so-good ones as well). Some of those companies even tried to understand their employees through the ever-popular employee survey, a well-intentioned, homogenized fill-in-the-bubble attempt to get information from people at every level of an organization. I know this is a favorite tactic in corporate America, because I have taken several over the course of my early employment history. Companies who give these surveys to their employees often believe this practice will help them learn things about their operations, gain genuine insight into their employees’ relationships with their managers, and discover ways they could improve. Of course, each time I took one of these surveys, I was assured that my answers would remain anonymous and my identity would be protected, but with little reason to believe that, I wasn’t likely to be honest and risk getting fired or held back for some perceived laundry list of grievances—I had no plans to take that chance, and not many of my fellow employees did either.

Some companies I worked for took a different tactic: the one-on-one meeting with a manager. These felt no safer—my blood pressure would soar as we went over all of the progress I had made, or lack thereof, and fine-tooth-combed my performance over the past month or quarter or year. At the end of one of these meetings, my manager asked me to tell him what I didn’t like about his management style, and advise him on how he could improve. How awkward! Did I like the guy? Not really. He micromanaged everything I did, and didn’t practice what he preached about performance standards, work ethic, or goals. Was I about to tell him these things to his face? Absolutely not. I’m not averse to face-to-face conversation, or even to actual conflict or confrontation when needed—but many, many people are, so imagine the difficulty they’d have with telling their boss what needs to change for them to love their job.

The day I spoke with those six employees in that sporting goods store, I had a pivotal realization. I was nobody of importance to them. Their relationship to me had zero impact on their job security. I wasn’t their manager, I wasn’t their boss, I wasn’t the owner, and I wasn’t some HR person conducting a company survey. I was simply another millennial—just like them. My lack of association with their company created the ultimate safe environment for them to speak their truth about their experiences. In our brief time together, those employees were not afraid of any repercussions on their job or on how their manager might see or relate to them. And even if they did see a risk, they knew they could find another job somewhere else, in no time at all.

That’s when it hit me: What if the CEO could have heard his employees’ responses, stories, feelings, and ideas? Imagine how that information and insight could have helped him understand his real-world company culture—and what he’d need to change to retain his employees, and get the most from their potential.

According to the Work Institute’s 2020 Retention Report, 2 27 percent of U.S. employees quit their jobs in the previous year. And, among those, 78 percent left for preventable reasons, such as scheduling problems,